In times of desperation, every man turns to something comforting. This might be a woman, an old jumper or a lovely bottle of booze. Or it might be a big, shiny, fast powerful and irrationally expensive new car. Except your favourite new toy needn’t be the second dearest thing you’ll ever buy, after your house. Thanks to our buddies at Parker’s, we’ve dug up ten of the cheapest quality motors you will ever find. Because nothing makes money troubles go away faster than acting as if you've got loads of it.
1/ Alfa Romeo 156 GTA
2002/52 70,000 miles
Typical price: £4000
Price when new: £26,695
Alfa Romeo shoehorned a charismatic 3.2-litre V6 engine into the stunning 156 saloon in 2002 for the launch of the GTA. Clever suspension tweaks allowed a degree of finesse delivering 240bhp through the front wheels, and the earliest well kept examples can be found around the £4000 mark.
2/ Jaguar XK8 4.0
1997/P 60,000 miles
Typical price: £5000
Price when new: £49,620
The Jaguar XK8 might have had more appeal for Jaguar’s traditional audience when new, but at £5000 for a low-mileage early example with a full Jaguar service history from a private seller gives a whole new range of buyers access to this beautiful V8 engined smoothie.
3/ Porsche Boxster 2.5
1998/S 80,000 miles
Typical price: £7500
Price when new: £34,125
There’s no shortage of cheap early Boxsters, but many have high mileage and are low on kit. But even if you look for those with optional leather seats and air conditioning you can find great examples for the same price as a new city runabout. The Boxster will have almost as much boot space as a typical small car, too.